SHOPPING ADDICTS BE CAREFUL !!!
Christmas is near. Holidays are near. Great Deals are near. It's the best time for shoppers and the retailers. But unfortunately it's a great time for Cyber Criminals too.
With Black Friday (28th November 2014) and Cyber Monday (1st December 2014) coming up, you need to be more careful while shopping. These are the two very busy shopping days where shoppers spend a lot of their time online.
Every eye will be on retailers to ensure that consumers' online shopping experiences are straightforward and, most importantly, Secure. So, at the major part, retailers need to pay attention to extra security measures in order to prevent themselves from massive data breaches, like Target data breach that occurred last year during the Black Friday sales in which over 40 million Credit & Debit cards were stolen.
To prevent yourselves from getting in a trap like that, you must know about the top scams.
1. COPYCAT & FAKE WEBSITES
In order to get an account holder's financial information, Hackers will try all the ways possible. They might set up a fake site that will just look like a genuine site. They will have fake security seals and will show up high ratings, but in reality they are getting your attention towards them and forcing you to enter your details. So to prevent these type of scams, go for the the famous sites or which are run by some famous company. Most importantly check that the website is running over HTTPS.
2. PHISHING WEBSITES
This scam is a very famous one. It's like you get an E-mail from somebody with a URL asking you to open and register an account. The advertisement will be very attractive. You open the page. The page just looks like a real site but unfortunately it's not real. The design is same but the source code or the functions defined are different. Once you provide your details, It won't login, Instead It will send your details to the hacker. So to protect these type of attacks, always check the URL of the site you are visiting. And for double check, check the name of the site on GOOGLE search.
3. Gifts Scam
This works in most cases as they attract many people by providing exciting deals. Customers will be given many free coupons and gift vouchers for visiting a page and registering to their site. So, most of the shoppers will get attracted and will want to get the best deals to get free gift or save money. But this free gift will cost very costly. It will take you to a Phishing site or will force you to download some dangerous unwanted Trojans to record your activities...
So at last, I just want to conclude that It's time to shop people. Go on. But be smart, be safe. You must expect them anywhere, anytime. :)
